1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handling device of a quartz glass crucible that sandwiches and transfers a quartz glass crucible under a clean environment, and, in particular, to a handling device that can firmly sandwich and reliably move the quartz glass crucible. The present invention also relates to a method of handling a quartz glass crucible using the handling device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, after being manufactured, a quartz glass crucible is washed, inspected, and packed to be shipped. However, as increasingly high purity is required for semiconductor materials, it has been demanded that contamination of a quartz glass crucible itself be minimized and thus a quartz glass crucible is further washed by using ultrapure water and the like before the quartz glass crucible is used for pulling up single crystals. On the other hand, to increase the manufacturing efficiency of single crystal silicon by using the Czochralski (Cz) method and the like, the size of a quartz glass crucible is made increasingly larger. This results in difficulty in handling of the quartz glass crucible, which is likely to cause the quartz glass crucible to be contaminated during inspection or packing operation after manufacture. Especially, a quartz glass crucible is quite likely to be contaminated when the quartz glass crucible is packed while being handled by two workers. To avoid such a problem as this, JP 2000-219207 Laid-Open discloses mechanically packing a quartz glass crucible in a condition where the quartz glass crucible is clean after being washed.